Higher seeds held up at Thursday's first round of the Big West Men's Tennis Championship at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, with No. 3 UC Santa Barbara and No. 4 UC Davis moving a step closer to the title.

No. 4 seed UC Davis grappled for the all-important doubles point and freshman James Wade polished off a 4-0 victory over No. 5 seed UC Irvine in the first round of a Big West Men’s Tennis Championship contest Thursday.

The Aggies won twice in a tiebreaker to tally the doubles point and gain a 1-0 lead. Alec Adamson and Adam Levie outdueled Tyler Pham and Jonathan Hammel at No. 1 by an 8-7 (2) score. Then, at No. 3, Brett Bacharach and Adam Luba slipped past Caryl Hernandez and Shuhei Shibahara, 8-7 (4).

Momentum continued for the Aggies in singles as Kyle Miller gave them a 2-0 lead. His 6-1, 6-2 triumph at No. 3 over Kyle Miller was followed by Bryce McKelvie’s 6-0, 6-4 win at No. 6 against Shuhei Shibahara.

The remaining four singles matches all tightened up as the Anteaters fought to comeback. However, that hope was squashed by Wade, who improved to 19-3 in singles dual matches when he outlasted UCI’s Tyler Pham in three sets, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-4. Wade won for the 12th time in his last 13 matches and improved to 7-1 at No. 2 singles.

The Aggies (14-10) reached the Big West Tournament semifinals for the second time in three seasons. They will face top-seeded Hawai‘i at 3:00 p.m. Friday. UC Davis lost a narrow 4-3 contest to UH on April 1. The Anteaters conclude their season at 11-18.

The Gauchos had an easy time at the beginning of the match, staking claim to a 1-0 lead on the strength of 8-0 and 8-1 victories at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, respectively.

However, the singles match-ups became much more intriguing. With regular No. 1 player Tobias Galskov out of the lineup, the Gauchos moved everyone up a spot on the ladder. Teague Hamilton pushed the advantage to 2-0 Gauchos when he defeated Julian Ruffin, 6-1, 6-2, in the No. 4 position. The lead grew to 3-0 as Erik Johnsson breezed to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Jack Felich at No. 3.

The Highlanders struck back with a win at No. 5, with Sean Yun collecting a 6-3, 6-4 win against Miles Seemann. The score became 3-2 UCSB when UCR’s Cooper Bridge overcame a first-set loss to toppled Sasha Gryaznov, 0-6, 6-2, 6-4.

With tight matches being contested on the No. 1 and No. 6 courts, the Highlanders sniffed the upset. But the Gauchos found the clinching point at No. 6 as Luke Steeb battled to a 6-4, 7-5 triumph against Sina Sharifi.

The Gauchos improved to 9-13 on the year and advanced to Friday’s semifinals against rival and No. 2 seed Cal Poly. First serve is at 3:00 p.m. The Highlanders concluded their season 2-22.